Army Bulldozes 500 Olive Saplings near Salfit

Israeli forces, on Wednesday, uprooted some 250 olive saplings near the village of Sekaka, east of Salfit town, in the occupied West Bank, according to local sources.

PalestinianÂ correspondence said that an Israeli army force, accompanied by bulldozers, uprooted the 500 olive saplings, claiming they were planted on a state-owned land.

Abdul-Qader Hekmeh, head of Sekaka village council, told WAFAÂ that the owners of the land where the trees were uprooted hurried to the scene in an attempt to stop the attack, but failed to do so as the soldiersÂ confronted them.

According to the Israeli anti-settlement group, Peace Now, Israel has used a number of legal and bureaucratic procedures, over the years, in order to appropriate West Bank lands, with the primary objective of establishing settlements and providing land reserves for them.

Using, primarily, these five methods: seizure for military purposes; declaration of state lands; seizure of absentee property; confiscation for public needs; and initial registration, the Israeli state has managed to take over about 50% of the lands in the occupied West Bank, barring the local Palestinian public from using them.